I knew that there was an
Ourcq--a canal, or a river, or both, with a bit of Paris sticking to its
banks: knew it vaguely, as one knows and forgets that one's friends'
faces have profiles. But Brian's words brought back the whole story to
my mind in a flash. I remembered how Von Kluck was trapped like a rat,
in the _couloir_ of the Ourcq, by the genius of Gallieni, and the
glorious cooeperation of General Manoury and the dear British
"contemptibles" under General French.
It was a desperate adventure that--to try and take the Germans in the
flank; and Gallieni's advisers told him there were not soldiers enough
in his command to do it. "Then we'll do it with sailors!" he said.
"But," urged an admiral, "my sailors are not trained to march."
"They will march without being trained," said the defender of the
capital. "I've been in China and Madagascar, I know what sailors can do
on land."
"Even so, there will not be enough men," answered the pessimists.
"We'll fill the gaps with the police," said the general, inspired
perhaps by Sainte-Genevieve.
So the deed was dared; and in a panic at sight of the mysteriously
arriving troops, Von Kluck retreated from the Ourcq to the Aisne. It was
when he heard how the trick had been played and won by sheer bravado,
that he cried out in rage, "How could I count on such a _coup_? Not
another military governor in a hundred would have risked throwing his
whole force sixty kilometres from its base.
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